The Witch of Vera Wood: Chapter 10

The Witch of Vera Wood

Chapter 10

            Lina had lived with Tarja for more than a month now. She didn’t miss her old life at all, strangely enough. Except for Nikki and her dad, there was nothing for her back there, and she was sure they were getting along fine without her. She had seen them herself once, when Tarja had taken her to spy on the coven that danced around in the clearing. Her father had been “preaching” to the coven while they performed some silly ceremony, and Lina even saw Nikki sitting on a rock on the opposite side. Lina remembered how she and Tarja could barely hold in their laughter at the sight of the ceremony. That was a fun night.

            Today, Tarja had sent her to gather some plants and other potion ingredients, for today the two would once again make the energy-harnessing potion. Peter had tagged along with her and together they had gathered a few basketfuls of various flora and jarfuls of various fauna within a few hours. They decided to rest a little before they headed back, and Lina took a seat under a large tree with Peter curled up on her lap. Lina closed her eyes and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. It was a warm and peaceful day; sunlight penetrated the canopy above and played upon the forest floor below as a warm breeze blew lazily through the trees.

            Suddenly, Lina heard a rustle in the nearby bushes. Peter immediately awoke from his sleepy stupor and sat up, sniffing the air.

            “What was that?” Lina inquired, although she knew Peter couldn’t answer her while in his dog form. Peter continued to sniff the air around him. A second later, a little girl with long brown hair tumbled out of a rather large blueberry bush and onto the ground. She looked up and saw the pair staring at her.

            “Lina!” she exclaimed as she got up, her eyes wide.

            “N-n-nikki?” Lina stuttered in disbelief. “Nikki, what are you doing here?”

            “I…I was looking for you,” she answered.

            “Oh Nikki,” said Lina. Tears started to well up in her eyes. “Please go home. Please. I’m not supposed to talk to you…”

            “W-why?” asked Nikki. “You’ve been gone for a month! Daddy’s been so worried about you, and so am I. I came to find you to ask you to come back!”

            “How’d you know I was here?” asked Lina through tears.

            “They’re saying things in town. Something about you going to live with the witch, and something about a boy named James and…”

            Lina couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t see Nikki or anyone else. Tarja had forbidden it. She didn’t want to lose what she had now. She couldn’t lose it. What would she go back to?

            “I’m sorry Nikki, I’m really sorry,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “Promise me you won’t come looking for me again. Not you, not dad, not anybody. Promise?”

            “B-but why?” asked Nikki sadly. “We all miss you so much!”

            “Just promise me Nikki, just promise me! Please!”

            “Alright, but…” started Nikki, but Lina interrupter her.

            “I’m so sorry,” she said, and she turned around and ran back toward the cabin. Peter took one last look at Nikki, whose eyes too began to fill with tears, and bounded after Lina. He caught up to her and ran ahead, giving a loud bark and running off the path into the woods. Lina followed him. Peter ran behind a tree.  Lina approached it.

            “Don’t come behind here. I don’t have any clothes,” he said.

            “Right,” said Lina. Her eyes were red from crying. “What do I do? Tarja can’t know about this!”

            “No, she can’t. But you know, she can force it out of me. I can’t lie to her, it’s part of being a familiar,” said Peter from behind the tree.

            “What do we do then?”

            “All we have to do is make it seem like nothing happened,” said Peter. “Be as inconspicuous as possible. I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

            “Alright. I’ll try my best,” said Lina.

            “I think we’d better sit here a bit and let you recover. We’ll go back when you’re ready.”

Peter transformed back into a dog and came out from behind the tree. They sat there for about half an hour. Lina mulled what just happened over in her head about a thousand times. “I have to contain myself,” she thought, over and over again. Eventually, she got up and the two began to walk toward the cabin.

“Back?” asked Tarja as they entered the cabin. She was standing at a cauldron with her back to them, stirring some purple potion. “What took you so long?”

“We just stopped and rested for a little bit. I fell asleep,” said Lina. It was almost true. Peter ran into Tarja’s room and came back out clothed a minute later. Tarja muttered to herself something that sounded suspiciously like “lazy” under her breath and turned around. She looked at Lina and noticed her eyes were still a bit red and puffy.

“W-were you crying? What happened?” she asked. Lina looked at Peter, and the two made eye contact. She had to think up an excuse. She yelled out the first thing that came to mind.

“A mushroom!” she shouted, a little nonsensically. Tarja looked at her like she was crazy, as did Peter, who suppressed a small chuckle.

“A mushroom?” asked Tarja, a little bit sarcastically.

“Yea,” said Lina. “Umm…”

“The spores,” said Peter, jumping in to save the day. “She picked up a mushroom that puffed out some spores and they got into her eyes, and I think she may have been allergic.”

Tarja sighed. “Whatever,” she said apathetically, turning back to her potion. “I hope you learned your lesson about spore-puffing mushrooms then.”

“Thank god!” Lina thought to herself. She looked over at Peter who smiled and mouthed, “She bought it!”

Lina put the ingredients she had in her baskets down on the table and she and Peter went outside again.

“That was close,” she said.

“Yep!” replied Peter, who had forgotten to change into his dog form. “But seriously. Mushrooms?”

“It’s the only thing I could think of!” said Lina, laughing. “I’m glad that you can think quickly though, or we’d have been doomed!”

“Yes, I saved you,” said Peter, grinning. “Now you owe men, big time!”

“Whatever,” said Lina, and the two went back to lounging against a random tree. It was time for Lina’s lesson anyway.